Untitled (2)Bicentennial Edition Poughkeepsie Journal July 4, 1976 Page -20
Wappinger Indian Chief
Hero To American Cause
By CHARLOTTE C. FINKEL
(Mrs. Charlotte Cunningham
Finkel, a former resident of the
Wiccopee area, was historian of the
town of East Fishkill for several
years. She has written many
authoritative articles about Dutchess
County's early history. She and her
husband, J. Manfred Finkel, now live
in Connecticut.)
There is a landscaped triangle in
Brinckerhoff, at the intersection of
Routes 82 and 52, and a granite
boulder whose plaque reads:
DANIEL NIMHAM
CHIEF SACHEM OF THE
WAPPINGER INDIANS
BORN IN DUTCHESS COUNTY.
WAS KILLED IN
AN ENGAGEMENT AT CORT2
LAND'S RIDGE. N.Y.
AUGUST 31, 1778 DEFENDING
THE AMERICAN CAUSE
Erected by State of New York, 1937
The site of the monument was well
chosen for when Daniel Nimham was
born and during his childhood, the
chief council fire of the Wappingers
was located nearby in what was then
the deep forests of Wiccopee. One
hundred years earlier Wappinger
lands had extended from the northern
end of Manhattan to the middle of
Beekman's Patent; and eastward
from the Hudson River into Con-
necticut.
Now, at the time of Daniel
Nimham's birth, these.lands had been
reduced by expropriation, chicanery
'and sale to Dutch and English set-
tlers. Only a 200,000 -acre tract in what
is now Putnam County remained.
Even the land of the Wiccopee council
fire was actually part of the Rombout
Patent belonging to Cathryna Brett.
That the Wappingers remained
there was due to a verbal agreement
between Madam Brett and Daniel's
father, Old Nimham— an
arrangement which ended when an
altercation with certain white settlers
caused the Nimham family to remove
jo lands of their Mahican kinsmen in
Stockbridge, Mass. However, other
Wappingers continued to live in the
area as well as on the Putnam County
lands.
About this time, 1740, Daniel
Nimham became Chief Sachem of the
Wappingers. His name, "Daniel,"
indicates that he was now a baptized
Christian—no doubt through at-
tendance at the Indian mission school
which had opened in Stockbridge four
years earlier.
_ Traditionally, Indian sachems were
warriors as well as leaders of their
'tribes. There is evidence that Stock-
bridge Indians, under Massachusetts
'Gov. William Shirley, took part in a
British campaign against the French
in 1745. In 1755, Nimham and most of
`the Mahican-Wappinger fighting
'men— hereinafter referred to as
"Stockbridge Indians"—joined with
.Sir William Johnson, British
I
uperintendent of Indian affairs, and
*several hundred Indians of other
tribes, in the successful Lake George
expedition. The Stockbridge Indians
Served in Pennsylvania, as well as
New York, until the early 1760s.
Before leaving for this war service,
,the Wappinger men moved their
wives, children and aged persons
:om Dutchess County to the safety o
Stockbridge—leaving their 200,000
.,cre tract in the hands of white set-
tlers who had leased farmlands from
them.
'loon t-�ir return in 1762, the In-
s fOL,,-; great destruction on their
is and that the heirs of Adolphe -
r,nilipse, led by an unprincipled Bon-
in -law, Beverly Robinson, were
claiming the Wappinger lands as well
as a Hudson River tract adjoining.
This the Wappingers and their
tenants angrily protested. Led by
Chief Nimham, a suit to reclaim their
property was brought before the
Court of Chancery at Fort George
(now Battery Park, New York City)
in March, 1765. Presiding was Lt.
Gov. Cadwallader Colen. The Philipse
heirs were represented by William
Livingston and James Duane; and the
Wappingers, who had been unable to
find a qualified New York Province
lawyer willing to represent them, had
Samuel Monroe, a rather curious
character.
Daniel Nimham, who appears to
have possessed a natural gift of -
eloquence, began an address to the
court on behalf of the tribe, but was
unmercifully heckled and browbeaten
by Beverly Robinson. The case was
lost.
This trial, and a subsequent one
held in March, 1767, are described at
length by Dr. Henry Noble Mac-
Cracken in Old Dutchess Forever!,
1956, pages 266-299, and the following
chapter. Also, in William S.
Pelletreau, History of Putnam
County, 1886, pages 20-86. They are
both well worth reading.
As he traveled up and down the
Housatonic Valley of Western Con-
necticut (now U. S. Route 7) on his
frequent trips between Stockbridge
and Dutchess County, Nimham
evidently became acquainted with
Cyrus Marsh (Yale, 1739), first
minister of the Kent, Conn. Church,
and his friend, Asa Spalding (Yale,
1752) a sometime preacher, lawyer
and Connecticut surveyor. Spalding
became the Wappinger lawyer, with
assistance of Marsh.
The Wappingers were not alone in
their land troubles. Their Mahican
kinsmen of Stockbridge were having
similar turbulence with the baronial
Van Rensselaer family. For years
they had petitioned Sir William
Johnson for relief in these land
disputes, "...Earnestly entreating
(him) to see Justice done them,
otherwise they would be obliged to go
to their Father the King" in Old
England.
No action was taken and the land
disputes led to violent disturbances.
Urged on by their tenants, Chief
Nimham and the Mahican sachems
decided to present their cases to the
British home government. Spalding
provided Nimham with an impressive
array of affidavits and other
documents; the Mahican chiefs had
similar documentation; and Sir
William Johnson provided them with
letters of commendation.
With Daniel Nimham on this trip
were three Mahican sachems, their
wives (whether one of them wa
Nimham's wife we do not present)
know) a British army officer, and a
interpreter. They sailed from Boston
the third week of June, 1766, an
arrived in England five weeks later
f Their appearance, as given by th
Salisbury & Winchester Journal, was
"The Sachems are remarkably tall
and stout, one of them six feet and a -
half high without shoes, which they do
not wear, of a brown, shining com-
plexion, and bold manly countenance.
They are dressed in the Indian
manner and are remarkably warlike
in appearance. Their women are of
the same complexion with the men,
appearing modest and decent in their
dress and behavior."
During the two months Nimham
and his friends appeared in London,
notices of their colorful activities
appeared in London newspapers and
magazines.
After five weeks at sea, the Indians
landed in Weymouth, south coast of
England, late in July. Their reason
for disembarking here, rather than in
London, was evidently because
William Pitt, the prime minister who
had directed the conclusion of the
French and Indian Wars so
brilliantly, had expected to spend the
summer nearby.
However, the very day the Indians
arrived, he was called by King
George III to London to form a new
cabinet. But members of the Pitt—
family met the Indiansone of the
Indians (probably the English
speaking Nimham) made a formal
speech to Pitt's eldest son.
After many adventures and mis-
adventures in England (including a
sightseeing trip to Stonehedge), the
Indians at last were able to present
their complaints to the Board of
Trade.
Returning to America in Sep-
tember, they carried with them let-
ters from the board referring their
land cases back to the governors of
New York and Massachusetts, though
with a strong, personal message from
the Earl of Shelbourne to both
governorsthatthey:
`...take into their most serious
consideration the case of these
distressed people and turn (their)
thoughts to every possible measure
that may tend to obtain for them just
& speedy satisfaction. Their case
seems, from the vouchers produced,
so hard that I cannot doubt but that
you will give them every facility that
lies in your Power for obtaining
redress.'
They arrived in New York City the
end of November. They proceeded
directly to Stockbridge and to
Johnson Hall for renewed council with
Sir William Johnson. But Sir William
again avoided decisive action on their
behalf against the powerful Philipse
and Van Rensselaer families.
In March, 1767, Nimham once more
brought the Wappinger case before
the High Court of Chancery in New
York City. This time the Wappingers
were represented by the able, un-
prejudiced lawyer from Connecticut,
Asa Spalding. But again the claims of
the Wappingers were rejected by the
court.
It was the last legal appeal of the
Wappingers.
Understandably, Nimham and the
s Stockbridge Indians were now
y thoroughly disillusioned with British
n attitudes toward their tribal lands.
They gave early cooperation to the
d American side of the white man's
Family Affair and were enlisted as
e minute men by the Provincial
Congress of Massachusetts nrior to
Joseph Brant, a Mohawk, left, and Governor Black-
snake, were two of the Indian chiefs who fought on the
side of the British. Brant was born in 1742, in an Iro-
quois settlement on the Ohio River. He lived near pres-
the Battles of Lexington and Concord,
April, 1775.
Daniel Nimham had now taken the
patriarchal name of Abraham and it
is under this name, or Abram, that we
find him listed in Revolutionary War
records. It was not uncommon for
Indians to change their names at
significant "points in time." Also, one
finds another Daniel Nimham--
perhaps a son or grandson—still on
the Massachusetts Lists in 1780, two
years after the death of our Dutchess
County hero.
But to return to the crucial year of
1775:
Daniel (Abraham) Nimham was
with Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold
in their dramatic seizure of Fort
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, May,
1775. He was then immediately sent
by them to Canada to enlist support of
the Caughnawaga Indians (notable -
Canadian warriors) for the American
cause.
He carried with him a message
from Ethan Allen:
"I know how to shute and ambush
just like Indian and want your
Warriors to come and isee me and help
me fight Regulars You know they -
stand all along close Together Rank
and file and my men fight so as In-
dians do .... if you will (join me) I will
Give you Money Blankets
Tomahawks Knives and Paint..."
While the majority of the Canadian
Caughnawagas remained loyal to the
British, some did return to Crown
Point with Nimham, and received
rewards.
By order of Gen. George
Washington, the Stockbridge Indians
joined the Continental Army, Aug. 7,
1776. The chronology of their service
in the Revolutionary War is presently
difficult to assemble. Many record
where clues might have been found
are permanently lost; many ar
ent-day Canajoharis, N.Y. Blacksnake, a Senaca, was a
ti young warrior who fought in several major battles.
Portrait of Brant by George Romney. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion National Anthropological Archives.
Portrait of Blocksnake, courtesy of State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
scattered in libraries and private
manuscript collections all over the
United States.
But a computer program is now in
progress in our National Archives: a
computerized index of the Papers of
the Continental Congress and other
War manuscripts which heretofore
have been almost inaccessable for
lack of indices. For example, through
use of this new, computerized index,
one is able to locate this touching
petition:
To the Honourable Congress for the
United States of America sitting at
Philadelphia
The Petition and Memorial of
Abram Nimham one of the Chief -
Warriors of the Stockbridge Indians
humbly sheweth: That he with his
warriors have several times been
ed tc the assistance and been in
ser e. of the United States,
curing the present War. and they
always stand ready to the utmost of
their power to oppose the Enemies to
this our Country. But they are at
present not fit to go into the service
for want of comfortable cloathing.
We Indians have no wool or flax, nor
do we understand how to manufacture
them to supply our own, and the
necessities of our families as you
white people do. We can't buy any
cloathing at all without giving a very
great price for it, so that our money is
good for but little: Neither can we find
it anwywhere about us for money. I
am now come this great distance in
my own behalf, and in the behalf of
my friends, to lay this matter before
this Honourable Congress begging o
them to give such orders as they may
in their wisdome shall think fit, that
we the Warriors are called upon t
join your Armies we may all as one b
ready to take up our guns and ou
s Tommyhauks and go immediately
with this satisfactory consideratio
e that we don't lieve our Wives and ou
Children naked, and your petitioner
as in duty bound shall ever pray
Philadelphia
ABRAM NIMHAM
Another request from Nimham is in
the Gates Papers oftheNew-York
Historical Society; through whose
courtesy it is printed:
To the Most Honourable Major
Genl Gates
Brothers I come ask you a question
I hope you will help us now I mention
which I have been concern I and some
brothers has lifted into the Con-
tinental service in several Regiments
now Brothers I should be very glad if
you will discharge them from their
Regiments we always want to be in
one body when we are in Service.
Do not think that I want these Indians
away from their soldiering but we
want to be together always & we will
be always ready to go where you
wanted us to go long as this war
stands etc.
ABRAHAM NIMHAM Captn
Perhaps this request, being
granted, contributed to the great loss
of Stockbridge Indians at Cortland's .
Ridge, Kingsbridge, Aug. 31, 1778.
There Daniel (Abraham) Nimham,
his son and at least 17 Stockbridge
warriors were killed in a British
ambuscade.
One of the British officers, Lt. Col.
John Simcoe, wrote a moving account
of the bravery of the Indians and was
himself wounded by Capt. Nimham. -
The Indian doctor of the Company
was taken prisoner and said that
when Nimham saw the British
f grenadiers close in on the Indian
y position, he called out to his people to
fly —that he himself was old and
o would die there. The site of this -
e disastrous encounter is marked by a
r large monument built of fieldstone. It
is on the west side of Van Cortland
n Parkway East, at 238th Street, in
r Yonkers.
C
C